1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to boxes and package cushioning therein and more particularly relates to a combination box and package cushioning system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art boxes are often shipped in stacks of flat blanks to save space in shipping and are erected and assembled at their point of use. Cushioning materials are then placed therein to help to prevent damage to the objects contained within the box. There are several methods in the prior art of providing such cushioning. For example, one method is to provide a volume of small "peanuts" of styrofoam packed around the product; another method; to wrap "bubble pack" sheet material around the object to be held in the box. A further type of cushioning product is specifically molded to fit around the object, such molded piece often made of expanded polystyrene or polyethylene foam. Yet another method utilizes expandable foam products which can be injected as a liquid by a gun into plastic bags placed in the box adjacent to the object, which liquid foams and expands the bags around the object to be cushioned. In some instances boxes are partially filled with such foam up to a preselected level which foam is then covered with a plastic film and the object is then placed thereon. Then another plastic film is placed over the object, and the remainder of the box is filled with the expanding foam. Examples of this process are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,204,385 to Remer for Method of Packaging Articles in Foam Plastic and U.S. Pat. No. 3,190,442 to Gauss for Packaging Methods. Special foam packaging films are provided for this purpose with expanding foams injected by foam guns from component mixers to create such foams. Other types of insertable bags to be filled with foam are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,347 to McGill entitled Foamed in Bags Packaging; U.S. Pat. No. 3,419,134 to Fitts entitled Foamable Package and Method for Forming Cellular Foam; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,843 to Schneider entitled Foam Packaging Method and Construction. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,743 to Presnick for Inflatable Insulation for Packing an entire bag system is disclosed to be inserted in a box after box erection. These systems, however, have the disadvantage in that the cushioning material must be individually installed in each box after setting up the box. This work is time-consuming and therefore costly to create such individual "custom" package cushioning.